Want to play Blue-Ray discs on your Mac Mini?

It’s impossible to do without upgrading the Mini’s drive and now AMEX Digital makes it all possible with it’s Blue-Ray upgrade kit.  The kit, which sells for $199.99, makes it possible to covert the Mini’s drive and lets you play DVD and Blue-Ray discs via your Mac Mini.

The drive supports the latest green ECO S.M.A.R.T which maximizes power efficiency and its SATA Drive has a 30% faster data transfer rate.  Quiet Drive technology reduces the noise level of audio and video recording or playback while also delivering increased writing reliability.

You can read the full press release on the upgrade the kit from AMEX Digital here.

Vestax, one of the industry leaders in professional DJ equipment has partnered up with djay to release a brand new controller called Spin that enables Mac users to use their own iTunes libraries to mix, scratch and play music just like a real DJ.

The bundle is available exclusively in Apple stores nationwide, and delivers the entire DJ experience to any music lover, whether novice or professional.

The package is available from Apple.com for a price of $249.99.

You can watch a video demo of it in action below.

A number of us have had fun with hackingtosh-ing our netbooks. There is something neat about a netbook running OSX while we continue to wait for something official in the form of a netbook or tablet.

Well it looks like iPhone jailbreakers aren’t the only ones Apple is trying to shut down.

Word is that yesterday’s 10.6.2 update to Snow Leopard officially drops support for Atom Processors- the brain in almost all netbooks. The result is a world of hurt for anyone trying to update a netbook to 10.6.2.

All is not lost, however. Continue Reading

If you ordered one of the new 27″ iMacs with the new Core i5 and i7 quad-core Intel-powered machines you are in luck. Word is that Apple is now shipping the speeds-demons, and they will likely make their way to happy new owners by week’s end.

This kind of speeds doesn’t come cheap. The 27-inch machine running at 2.66 GHz with a Core i5 750 iMac has a retail price of $1,999. For $200 more you can bump that to a 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 860 processor. Additional details are…

* 27-inch 2560 x 1440 LED-backlit display
* 2.66 GHz Intel Core i5 quad-core processor with 8MB shared L3 cache
* 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM (up to 16GB taken)
* ATI Radeon HD 4850 discrete graphics; with 512MB GDDR3
* 1TB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm
* A slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+ / -R DL/DVD+ / -RW/CD-RW)

Did you order one? If so, let us know when it arrives!

via AppleInsider

Rumor has it that the upcoming 10.6.2 build of Mac OS X has removed support for the Intel Atom CPU, which is the processor under the hood of many netbooks on the market today, including my beloved Dell Mini 9. This isn’t an issue for most Mac users, but if you’re like me and you’ve Hackintoshed your way to super-portable bliss, you might be a little worried.  See, Apple…this is why I wish you had your own official netbook!

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While I’m stuck at home looking after my three wonderful daughters (my wife is out of town on a business trip) Dan and Wayne are in NYC at the live taping of the Engadget Show.  I’m not bitter though.

Dan reports….

So here Wayne and I are waiting for the engadget show to start. Big piece will be the Windows 7 release. Steve Balmer will be here. There is a computer on stage to manage sound. There is one on the table between where he and Josh Topolsky will sit. BOTH notebooks are…. Macs!!!!!

I wonder what Steve will have to say about that? 

More to follow.

I have used database programs for quite a while to keep track of things like my music collection and favorite wines.  Sure, I could do that with a spreadsheet, but having the data organized in a database makes it easy to sort and view records. I’m relatively new to Bento, just picking it up with version 2, but found it very easy to learn and use. This week, FileMaker released Bento 3, a major update to their user-friendly database software for the Mac.

Bento 3 offers a number of new and improved features, which are largely directed toward incorporating graphics better and adding security options, including:

• iPhoto integration

• Grid View – view any library in the new Grid view to show a grid of images or thumbnail views of your forms

• Related data field – now with image thumbnails

• File List – now with image thumbnails

• Table view with media cell

• Simple list field type – add a freeform table to your forms for quick list tracking

• Library Folders – save space in your Libraries pane by grouping like libraries in a single folder

• Library Icons

• Image box – add a static image, such as a team logo, to any of your forms

• New security options

• Multi-user sharing – share your Bento libraries with up to 5 other Bento users on your local area network

• Group emailing – send one email to multiple recipients through Apple Mail with a few clicks

• Improved Theme Chooser

• New option to print blank forms

• Print a blank version of any form, great for surveys and sign up lists

• New option to copy forms within a library and between collections

• 10 new pre-designed templates

In addition, FileMaker released an update to their iPhone app this week to improve compatibility with the Bento 3 desktop software.

Bento 3 is available for $49.00 from FileMaker’s website.  For existing Bento users, FileMaker is offering an instant upgrade rebate of $20 (offer expires January 28, 2010).

Do you have a few web sites that you visit more than most?  If you’re like me you keep several browser tabs opened to the sites you visit often throughout the day. If you’re on a Mac check out this utility I recently came across which helps with this problem.

Fluid creates SSB (site specific browsers) to help you manage these sites more efficiently.  Fluid gives any web application it’s own icon, standard menu bar, place on the desktop and much more.

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Sometimes it is hard to believe how quickly technology marches on … and other times it seems amazing to look upon the relics of technology past, and think that folks used those as cutting-edge devices at one point. As someone who used a Macintosh Portable from when it came out until past the time it was really a feasible computer, seeing it get torn to bits doesn’t sound too bad to me! Technologizer takes us step-by-step through the entire system, using a handy iPod Touch to serve as a size comparison throughout.

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There were a few utilities available pre-Snow Leopard which allowed you to set up the Mac’s built in Mail client in three columns.  Unfortunately all of them stopped working with the release of OS upgrade.

Letterbox is a small utility from Aarom Harnly.  It works with the built in Mac Mail client and allows you to view your mail application in three columns.  Aaron released a new beta last week that works with Snow Leopard.

In my opinion this little add-on makes the mail application look like it should be by default.  I’ve been using it for a little while and it’s been performing exactly as I’d expect, making my mail reading experience just a little easier.

Check out the app. here.

Now if someone would just fix Sticky Windows so it would work with Snow Leopard I’d be all set.

I love my wireless BT keyboard for my iMac.  There’s two things though, that I find fault with.

One, the wired version is full sized.  It has the extra numerical keypad on the right side where as the smaller wireless version does not.

Two, the wired version has two USB ports, where as the wireless has none.

Macally solves one of the two issues with the release of its new BTkey Wireless Keyboard for Mac.

The BT keyboard is full sized.  It uses two AA batteries which last up to 2 months.

While the BTkey is arctic white and matches the iMac well, it is missing that dazzling aluminum look that the Apple keyboards posses.

Still if you want a wireless, full sized keyboard to go with your Mac, this one fits the bill.

The BTkey sells for $69.99.

Check it out on the Macally web site.

I personally use only one language on my Mac computers, English.  Unless you’re multi-lingual or unless you’re like Judie and plan on taking up another language, chances are you only need one language on your computer as well.

The Mac comes preinstalled with several language packs.  These packs includes fonts, and other things which all take up hard drive space.

That’s where Monolingual comes in.  Monolingual is a free application (donations are accepted) which allows you to selectively remove any language pack from your Mac that you choose.

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Buy.com has the one of the last of the G4 iBooks [refurb'd] on sale for $399. So if you’ve been dying for an Apple netbook but don’t want to hackintosh, and you don’t mind being stuck on a G4 with Leopard, this the deal you’ve been waiting for…happy shopping!

Buy.com 12.1 iBook, 1.33ghz processors, 1gb RAM, 40gb HDD

It is always nice when you see an application you have used in Beta reaches a Version 1 release. Such is the case with Postbox.

The cross-platform works with Windows and OSx and promises…

Faster, Smarter, and More Organized, Postbox is a Better Way to Manage Email.

It offers some great features including: powerful, flexible search, various content views so your email has the look and ease you prefer, better, more flexible organization, ToDo Tagging and more.

Based on Mozilla’s technology Postbox is indeed impressive. One is, however, left to wonder if these features justify spending $39.95 for a single seat or a tad less than a whopping $60 for a family pack when Mac Mail and Gmail are free.

You can learn more HERE.

(Cowritten with Dan)

America may run on Dunkin, but sometimes it seems like the internet runs on something else; caffeinated, sugary and at times, rude and disrespectful. Fanboys (and girls).

You know who we’re talking about. They are the first to yell “TROLL” if you dare denigrate their favorite subject. They are the first to jump to the defense of the oft undefendable actions of their heroes in a manner not dissimilar to the way in which one would hopefully defend the honor of their their significant other. And they are always the first to post on an internet forum when anything, good or bad, is written.

At the same time, they are also the first to try a new product, discuss ad naseum every aspect of a software update, and blindly take the role of cheerleader regardless of the reality of the situation. Yes, they are the next generation of those who continue to argue endlessly about whether “Star Trek: The Next Generation” or “Star Trek: The Original Series” was the better show, despite both being off the air for years. And sadly, they are the ones who will increasingly attack anyone who dares disagree with them.

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